I stalked in to a place I knew there was a rutting buck,, I'd seen his rubs and his scrape line on a couple of separate days, never the buck though.

This morning just after daylight, there he was, a 6 pointer, he was grunting, and heading my way in a hurry. So he comes right on up to 20 yards in front of me, perfect range for my pistol, then he lowered his head and showed me his rack. I seized the opportunity to raise my pistol and take aim, then he raised his head up and looked at me. He couldn't quite figure out what I was, so he started moving his head back and forth trying to figure me out, and straining to get a better look at me.

I got so caught up in looking at him that I forgot about my sight picture, and when I squeezed off the shot he jumped back like he'd been mule kicked in the chest, and trotted across in front of me, stopped, trotted back across, then walked back the way he came.

I was sure he was hit, so I waited, then when I thought he'd had it,, I headed over to where he was when I shot him, expecting to find a big puddle of blood and a bloody trail, but there was no blood at all, not even a spec. I followed his course for 500 yards, and not one drop of blood and no deer. So I'm sure I missed. Lesson learned, keep your eye on the front sight, and look at the deer when he's dead.

Now to my question,

Will this deer come back to check this scrape line in a day or two, or is he packing his bags and moving to the next county?

If he jumped the way you described there is a good chance he was hit. I would go back today and search extensively in a grid pattern. The more help you have the better.

A chest shot with a handgun is likely not to have produced an exit wound. Result, no blood trail. A high wound to the chest could be filling him up internally and there will be no blood coming out until it either fills to the point of impact or he falls over. A low wound to the chest could have produced little if any penetration, quite possibly a deflection. The chest plate is very hard.

With the later, he probably lives. With the former, he could run along ways before giving up the ghost. A mile or more is not uncommon.

I didn't see any dirt fly up, I checked afterwords to see if the leaves had been disturbed or a branch or anything hit, nothing that indicated a miss other than the deer walking away.

With the point I was aiming for I should have hit him just above the heart and through at least one lung. I've never seen a deer travel that far after being hit in such a way. I shot him with a 230 gr Federal Premium Hydra Shok JHP at 20 yards, about 880 fps and 396 ft pnds energy at that range. Should have done some damage.

I went back and searched, no deer, and couldn't find any sign of him being hit. At this point I'm really hoping it was a miss. I'm going back this weekend in hopes of seeing him again, hopefully alive.

My assessment is simply based off your description and my experience. I in no way pretend to know what happened nor could I be sure. But...

Several years ago while patrolling I was called to a car/deer accident and there was a buck with broken legs lying in the ditch. Iit couldn't get up but was very much alive. I and another officer both responded, and the person that hit the deer did not want to take possession of the deer. Using my duty weapon I put a 230gr JHP 45 right between his eyes. He dropped like a sack of potatoes.

I decided to take the deer since the person that hit it didn't want it, and the other officer stood by at the scene while I drove back to the station to get my truck. I returned about 10 minutes later to find the buck sitting up and looking at me. I dispatched it with another shot behind the ear. Out of curiosity I skinned that bucks head to find my 45 hadn't penetrated the skull. The forehead area of the skull was fractured, but the bullet had glanced off the skull plate like hitting a flat plate target, and simply knocked the deer out for a short period of time.

Apparently not learning my lesson, several years later I shot a wild hog between the eyes only to track him for over 5 hours with very little blood. Again I failed to penetrate the skull plate.

I am a 45 fan. I've always been a "the larger the hole, the more blood they pump, the faster they fall" kinda guy. That being said, in relation to high powered rifles and even shotgun slugs a 900FPS 45 is actually a slower large mass bullet IMO. And my experiences tells me it doesn't penetrate well against heavy bone mass.I wouldn't recommend taking shots against the chest or skull plates of large animals with such a caliber.

Yep, I have the same thoughts. I aimed a bit high hoping to miss the breast plate, but it's possible that I hit it. You'd think the deer would shed a drop or two though. IDK, maybe there are no blood vessels in a deers hide? Guess I should have put a FMJ on top.

If I hit him, I hope I did hit his breast plate, and hopefully it did no real damage. I'd rather see the deer walk away laughing as opposed to it going to waste. If I did kill him, at least the coyotes will have a feast, and they won't be as likely to eat someone's pet.

Funny story about knocking the deer out. I hit a doe one night on my way home, she jumped out of a yard into the road, I slid a good ways and just tapped her. The deer looked dead as 3:00 am, lying in the road not moving at all, eyes open and tongue out. I went down the road about 1/4 mile or so to turn around, and when I got back the deer was sitting up looking around, and sort of shaking her head. Then she got up and trotted off like nothing had happened. Lol I think her head hit the pavement when I knocked her down, and that's what knocked her out. It did no damage to my truck at all, just hit her hard enough to knock her over.

I had an experience with a domesticated yorkshire hog that I was going to bar-b-q. We had put the hog in a horse trailer and the day we were going to butcher it, I went up, opened the trailer door, and calmly shot the hog right between the eyes with a .357 jhp load. It of course went straight down, so I assumed it was dead. I went to get a wheel barrow to load it up and heard some noise. As I turned the hog was standing up and took off running. to make a long story short, I had to end up turning the hounds loose and shooting him with a .22 rifle, then as we were scalding it, the damn thing again came back to life and tried to escape the tub of hot water. I ended up taking a hoe, holding it's head under water, and drowning that hog in the water in order to kill it. I learned two important lessons that day. Never shoot an animal in the head with a hollow point, and never turn your back on an animal that you believe is dead!

I know of a guy who shot a 10 point buck, then he decided to lay his rifle in it's rack and take some pics, while he was taking pics the buck jumped up and ran off with his rifle in it's rack. I saw the pics, one of the buck with the rifle sitting on it's rack, and another that was sort of blurred as the buck was starting to get up.

He learned his lesson on that one, and now I put a FMJ on top of my pistol mag, so I can eject the JHP and load the FMJ, just in case another buck gives me a head on shot.